Although a seemingly trivial issue at first glance, the efficient and cost effective packing storage and shipping of wire and filaments is a problem of ever increasing importance. This is due to rising costs of manufacturing and packaging which contribute an ever increasing share to the cost of the overall product and, hence, increases the cost of the delivered wire or filaments which are wound upon to spools. In order to effectively package, store and ship wires and filaments, various apparatuses have been invented which exhibit unique benefits according to the nature of each individual invention. Attention is drawn to several of these including U.S. Pat. No. 2,594,287 to L. J. Budd for a "Pallet Container Assembly for Shipping Articles"; U.S. Pat. No. 2,628,715 to L. J. Budd for a "Palletized Shipping Structure"; U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,790 to Schmid et al for a "Palletized Packaging of Cylindrical Objects"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,677 to Rowland et al for a "Modular Pallet and Shipping Tray" and to U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,198 to the present inventor, Ditton for a "Wire Shipping and Dispensing Package".
These various inventions have solved unique and specific problems pertaining to the containment and transport of wires and filaments which may be contained in cylindrical packing containers or wound onto spools. However, as noted above, there remains an ever present and continuing need in the art to provide improved apparatuses and methods useful in packing, storing and shipping filaments and wires.